We made it back without a hitch. It’s only fair since I savaged Continental for its part in our fiasco getting to Europe to give them credit where credit is due. All the Continental flights – Edinburgh to Newark; Newark to LAX – left on time and arrived early. And all our baggage made the trip with us. We had a three hour plus layover in Newark, which we spent in the Continental President’s Club. I had always heard that the Newark President’s Club was the bomb, so I was looking forward to spending some time there. Let me tell you, it ain’t shucks up to the side of the Virgin lounge in LAX, not to mention the one at Heathrow. The Newark lounge is big, really big, but aside from size, it’s not much different from any other VIP lounge.

We’ve gone through the mountain of mail and messages that always lay in wait for anyone coming home from a long vacation. And we’ve finally decompressed from the trip and have shed our jet lag. And best of all, I have reliable internet service for the first time in several weeks. So, I’m back in the blogging saddle. It’s good to be home.

Edinburgh Castle at dusk just above our hotel.

We’re here in Edinburgh and have been for the past couple of days. But – as with this entire European trip – I’ve encountered internet access problems. Every hotel we’ve stayed in has advertised that it has wifi internet service. Problem is that half (or more) of the time the service is down or the service is only available in the lobby, which can be a real pain in the rear. In all the hotels in which we’ve stayed the internet service has cost anywhere from $18 to $30 per day.

The next time I come over here I’m going to make sure that the hotels I reserve have internet service in the room and for a reasonable fee. I didn’t know the right questions to ask this time. The last time we were here, we were in Prague, Budapest, and Vienna. The first two had great internet service in the rooms at a reasonable cost; I had a problem in Vienna, but we were in a crummy hotel, so I didn’t think much about it. We had nice hotels throughout this trip, and I’m really surprised that we’ve had so much trouble using the internet.

We leave tomorrow for the US. I don’t know that I will get all the comments that have stacked up since I last had access before I hit the rack. We’ve got to be out of here at a little before 6 AM tomorrow and it’s now about 10:30 PM. I’ll have plenty of time in the airport lounge tomorrow before the flight (and, presumably, I’ll have internet service) to catch up.

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I’ve had a couple of readers ask about the Mediterranean diet as touted by those in the nutritional field as compared to the Mediterranean diet as it is consumed by those who live in the Mediterranean. Our group attended a Tuscan feast held at Castello Verrazzano – a winery that has been in production for centuries and is one hill over from the family of Amerigo Vespucci, the person after whom America was named – a couple of nights ago, and I took some photos to document what we were served.

The picture above is of Luigi Cappellini, the owner and vintner of Castello Verranzzano, who is hugging MD. To MD and Luigi’s right are JoAnne Wasserman, conducter and artistic director of the Santa Barbara Choral Society, Luigi’s mother Donna Clara Cappellini, and Brooks Firestone. To Luigi’s left are Kate Firestone and Jim Robbins . Why are all these people huddled together for this photo? Because MD is the new president of the board of the Santa Barbara Choral Society. Jim Robbins is the outgoing president. Brooks and Kate Firestone are the owners of Firestone Vineyard in Santa Barbara and the parents of Andrew Firestone (one of the first – if not the first—bachelors on The Bachelor). Brooks arranged the whole Tuscan dinner event with the able assistance of Gino Rossi, the director of events such at this at Castello Verrazzano.

You may ask how MD is going to be able to be the president of the Santa Barbara Choral Society when we live in Santa Barbara less than half the time. It is the same question I asked her. She insists she can do it, and based on her performance in other similar situations, I’m sure she will do just fine, thanks chiefly to the wonders of email and telephone and airplanes.

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Due to the Italian genius for inefficiency I’ve been without internet access for the last couple of days since arriving in Florence. Finally the hotel has got its internet service back – sort of. As I sit here typing it goes in and out. While I’ve got the service I want to go ahead and put up a post. There are a bunch of comments stacked up that I haven’t been able to get to yet due to the lack of internet – but I will. I doubt I will today, though, because MD had a concert in a couple of hours, and I’ve got to get over to the church and do my spouse-ly duties.

Someone mentioned eating in Italy in one of the comments I posted the last time I posted them. I’m here to tell you that sticking to a low-carb diet is an absolute breeze in Italy. I’m going to post some pictures of meals that we commonly eat here so that you can see what I’m talking about.

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I’m on a bus right now with a hundred other people traveling from Rome to Florence – not my favorite way to travel. But, I love my wife, so here I am. The last time I made this drive it was in an Alfa Romeo 156 that MD and I had rented and were driving from Positano. The small Alfa was a lot more fun. But I wouldn’t have been able to post on my Blackberry while at the wheel of the Alfa.

I haven’t responded to comments in a while because MD’s hectic concert schedule has started AND because I got tired of paying $30 per day for internet access. I’ll get caught up when we get to the hotel in Florence.

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